Have you ever seen fidgety students acting with constant little movement? Or have you noticed that some students always try to stand and walk around in the class? Perhaps these students are not short of attention or dislike learning, but instead they have their own ways to acquire and process information. Remember as kids, we learned a sport by physically playing it? That’s exactly an example of kinesthestic learning . This blog gives brief introduction of kinesthetic learning and ways to improve learning performance of kinesthetic learners.
Predominant Learning Styles: Proposed by Fleming and Neil in the late 1980s, the VARK Modalities is a concept describing the four predominant learning styles, i.e. visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinesthetic. The former three can be literally understood as they refers to preferences for graphical, audio and written learning materials. Then, what about kinesthetic learning?
What is Kinesthetic Learning
“Kinesthetic” refers to “connected with the ability to know where the parts of your body are and how they are moving” as explained in the Cambridge Dictionary. By definition, kinesthetic learning refers to the “perceptual preference related to the use of experience and practice (simulated or real).” Kinesthetic learners, often described as hands-on learners, are better acquiring and processing information when physically involved in learning. They learn best by utilizing their sense of touch and movement. Students with kinesthetic learning can engage themselves in an occasion where they can do activities personally and move in a certain manner.
Traits of Kinesthetic Learners
Kinesthetic learners tend to absorb and retain information by doing rather than just seeing or listening what teachers have presented or talked. When they get their brains and hands combined they immerse themselves in class and a better learning outcome can be expected. If a kid wants to touch something he/she is interested rather than just looking at it, or a student is able to remember how to spell a word by writing it down several times, most probably he/she is a kinesthetic learner.
Some traits of kinesthetic learners:
- Full of energy
- Think more clearly when able to move
- Tend to get bored in a traditional classroom
- Comprehend better when learning through hands-on experiences
- Enjoy directly manipulating objectives and materials with their hands
- Prefer working with tools or instruments
- Enjoy sports or physical activities
- Learn skills better than concepts
- Enjoy practicing something in order to learn it
- Prefer stand to sit for a long period of time
Steps to Help Kinesthetic Learners Learn Better in Class
Currently, class is predominated by teacher-centered format. This is a common learning scenario where a teacher is standing on the podium, delivering a lecture with his/her eyes fixed on the chalkboard, while students seated below listening and jotting down notes. Hovever, much of the time, kinesthetic learners need to move and do physically. It is harder for them to get involved in the class since their brains may be engaged but their bodies are not. As to improve their kinesthetic learning performance, some steps can be employed.
Integrate Kinesthetic-friendly Activities in Class
Traditional lecture is not the right way for kinesthetic learners to keep concentrated for a long period of time, and they tend to get bored and lose interests. Try to shorten your lecture and streamline the content. More importantly, integrate such activities in your class as roleplays, games, demonstration, experiments, practice, digital presentations such as polls and quizzes , and more in order to get this group of students hooked and focused. Students can also be arranged to work in pairs or group, collaborating with each other on a particular assignment.
Introduce Technologies to improve Kinesthetic Learning Performance
- Augmented Reality (AR) Technology:Thistechnology provides kinesthetic learners with a more intuitive and head-on learning experience by combining virtuality and reality. For example, in biology classes, kinesthetic students can observe the internal structure of cells through AR glasses as if they were touching the cells with their own hands, thus gaining a more intuitive understanding of the composition and function of cells.
- Interactive Learning Platforms: Some programs are designed to increase interaction in class. Some of the interactive learning platforms have been incorporated with functions like online discussion,quizzes, group work and interactive documents, allowing real-time communication and information sharing. The chat box enhances connection between students and teachers or among students. The algorithm-based intelligence can provide relevant learning materials to boost efficiency on the basis of analysis of users’learning behaviors and interests. Going further, some platforms can simulate labs and real learning situation to create a sense of immerse.
- Digital Tools: Using tablets, smartboards and touchscreens, kinesthetic learners can learn and interact by touching, swiping and tapping.Take smartboards for instance. Indeed it’s not a newcomer, but not all products in this line can address problems raised by kinesthetic learners. Teachers turn to technologies for more reliability and efficiency but little flaws emerge now and then turning them off. To keep students attentive and eliminate interruptions, a full-fledged smartboard is indispensable. Here’s an option. NearHub Board is an all-in-one device, providing infinite canvas to write and draw, 20/40 touch points to work simultaneously on the same page and the annotation function to directly put ideas into words on any forms of documents presented. The ready-to-use templates expose students to a variety of contents and resources. In addition, it is compatible with multiple software, which is a capability enabling teachers to download education apps or use search engines directly when a class is given online.
Take Your Class Outside
There is no need to lock students in the classroom. Changing the situation from classroom to the outside word brings opportunities for kinesthetic learning actors to move around and get an immersive feeling, considering they get tired easily with conventional lectures. They can engage with surrounding environment through stimuli of sight, sound, touch and even smell, which attracts their attention and enhances their learning experiences. Taking class outside enables them to see things more tangibly and capture a real personal feeling.
Conclusion
Kinesthetic learning refers to learners acquire and process information through physical engagement and hands-on experience. Different students have different learning styles. By figuring out their traits and utilizing useful steps, the learning performance of kinesthetic learners is expected to be improved.
NearHub is an all-in-one solution for meeting rooms and classrooms. NearHub possesses an interactive digital Board with cutting-edge whiteboard software. By combining your favorite programs with mess-free writing canvas and video conferencing, you can improve your interaction and productivity in the online meeting room or classroom. Besides, NearHub also provides MagicPad S13 to improve digital learning and creativity.
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